Subject: fat, pink, and roly poly Geographic location of the bug: vermont, usa Date: 09/29/2017 Time: 04:50 PM EDT I work at a childcare center on the vermont-new hampshire border, and i’ve seen a bunch of unusual bugs on the playground this year. i wish i’d found this site earlier, because it would have been able to answer a lot of questions for the curious kids- and their teacher! I found this guy just crawling around on the ground in the bark mulch and i’ve never seen anything like it before. It was pretty warm earlier this week for late september, could that have anything to do with it? thank you so much for all your hard work! How you want your letter signed:

Pre-Pupal Drab Prominent Caterpillar

Dear Molly, Your caterpillar bears an uncanny resemblance to a Mottled Prominent Moth Caterpillar we just posted, except that individual is green and yours is pink. Many caterpillars change color just prior to pupation, and that pre-pupal state is often a change in color from green to pink. We located this image of a pink Mottled Prominent Caterpillar on BugGuide and we consider that an anfirmation of our suspicion, but, closer inspection has us doubting that since your individual is lacking the rear-end projections visible in this BugGuide image and our own image. We still believe this is a Prominent Moth Caterpillar from the family Notodontidae. We now believe, based on this BugGuide image, that it is a Drab Prominent Caterpillar, Misogada unicolor. According to BugGuide, the: “larvae feed on cottonwood and sycamore” and “larvae can be found on the underside of cottonwood and sycamore leaves April-September.”

Pre-Pupal Drab Prominent Caterpillar

Thank you so much! The kids were all very fascinated, even if some of them didn’t completely understand. Keep up the good work!

Subject: Bu Jiminy, it’s a huge cricket! Geographic location of the bug: Borneo Date: 09/29/2017 Time: 06:33 PM EDT Dear Bug-dudes, on the road up to Mt. Kinabalu I foolishly picked this monster up to get a size comparison photo – it chomped the end of my bird-flipping finger and drew ridiculous amounts of blood … for a cricket!! I guess it’s about 3 1/2″ long. A fantastic beast indeed, as are so many on this amazing island. I’m very surprised that my googling has not revealed the animals true identity – help would be appreciated. Cheers How you want your letter signed: Paul Prior

Large Ensiferan from Borneo

Dear Paul, This looks to us like a close relative of North American Potato Bug, or a King Cricket from Australia or Parktown Prawn from South Africa. We located an image on ShutterStock, but alas, it is only identified as a “giant cricket in Sabah, Borneo.” We hope to have a better identification for you soon. We will attempt to contact Piotr Naskrecki.

Thanks guys, this is brilliant. Certainly looks pretty close to the pics I see on the internet. No mention of size and the map doesn’t show Borneo, but perhaps there’s another larger species occurring on that island (which so many examples of “gigantism”!).

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Subject: Bugs in backyard Geographic location of the bug: Torrance California Date: 09/28/2017 Time: 07:31 PM EDT I put fly traps up in backyard to help with flies around my dogs and I end up catching these bugs instead. I just want to make sure these are not mosquitos since my dogs and myself are outdoors in backyard often. Thank you for any info you may give. How you want your letter signed: currious mom

Long Legged Flies

Dear currious mom, These Long Legged Flies in the family Dolichopodidae are beneficial predators in the garden, though they are only able to eat the smallest of prey.

Subject: Never saw this one before Geographic location of the bug: Oklahoma City Date: 09/29/2017 Time: 07:45 AM EDT There were several of these in a Porta pot for about 5 days. They can fly too. How you want your letter signed: Jeff

Acorn Weevil

Dear Jeff, This is an Acorn Weevil or Nut Weevil in the genus Curculio. According to BugGuide: “Long slender beak; body robust. In some species, female snout may be longer than the body (never in males).”

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Subject — Wolf or Trapdoor Geographic location of the bug — Montgomery, Al Date: 09/28/2017 Time: 06:18 PM EDT Hi: I am sending two pics of what I believe are the same spieces of spider. One of the spiders is, what I think to be, quite a unique color. I stupidly forgot to put a coin by that one, however, it was just slightly bigger than the second spider. Both spiders were discovered dead. One was being drug by a spider wasp. We have had a bumper crop of spiders this year. They seem to have exploded along with the record breaking rain in our area. Thank you for checking my photos and I am very curious about the one with the blue abdomen. How you want your letter signed: Kathy

Wolf Spider

Dear Kathy, These are not Trapdoor Spiders, and we concur that they are probably Wolf Spiders and the same species or at least genus.

Wolf Spider

Update Courtesy of a comment from MichaelMichael identified these as members of the Wolf Spider genus Tigrosa, and based on this BugGuide image and this BugGuide image, we would grade his as Correct.

Subject: Please identify me 🙂 Geographic location of the bug: London, UK Date: 09/26/2017 Time: 01:53 AM EDT Dear Bugman, I have a lovely bug which I discovered in my study. He was sat at my desk as I was working one evening. He is very sweet with interesting markings. I have looked everywhere for the type of bug he is and the best I can come up with is kissing bug, which seems highly unlikely as I live in London! He is very sweet but have since put him in a breathable container just in case ! I will set him free of course I just didn’t know where to set him free, ie what he eats and so where in my garden perhaps he would be happiest. How you want your letter signed: Thank you in advance of your help. Alex

Dear Daniel, Thank you so much for replying! That is fascinating. I will release him to a conifer tree as soon as I am home from work. Thank you for a super fab service ! Poor chap has a damaged leg as one of my cats found him before I did, but he moves almost without disability. Thank you again, Alex